ABSTRACT
What is perhaps in the process of being reconsidered is the form of closure that was called "ideology" (doubtless a concept to be analyzed in its function, its history, its origins, its transformations), the form of the relationships between a transformed concept of "infrastructure," if you will--an "infrastructure" of which the general text would no longer be an effect or a reflection--and the transformed concept of "ideology." ... What is produced in the current trembling is a reevaluation of the relationship between the general text and what was believed to be, in the form of reality (history, politics, economics, sexuality, etc.), the simple, referable exterior of language or writing, the belief that this exterior could operate from the simple position of cause or accident. (Derrida, Positions, 90-91)
Ideology is a term very frequently encountered in all forms of political criticism, be it Marxist, feminist, or conservative. It is also encountered almost as frequently in the types of criticism that purport to be uncontaminated by the political, the dismissal of ideology being equivalent to the assertion of the "purity" of both literary and critical discourses. In fact, "ideological" is often used interchangeably with "political," especially in relation to the analysis and criticism of cultural phenomena. In stark contrast to the almost universal assumption that the term "political" is self-explanatory, however, there has been little agreement upon what an ideology is or what constitutes ideological criticism.
